WMA awarded $30,800 in grants for Sydney A. Foster artist residency and exhibition

Pictured Above: Sydney Foster, Photo by Frank Jackson. 

The Wiregrass Museum of Art (WMA) is pleased to announce grant support for an artist residency and upcoming exhibition with Sydney A. Foster, from the Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation and the Alabama State Council on the Arts, in the amounts of $25,000 and $5,800, respectively. 

Foster, an Alabama native, has worked closely with WMA since 2019, exhibiting photography in her first solo museum exhibition, Walks in the South. Over the past year and a half, Foster has been traveling to Dothan and the surrounding areas to capture the realities of the Wiregrass community as the museum’s artist-in-residence. 

In the upcoming exhibition, Sydney A. Foster: Realities and Reflections, the artist explores the unique characteristics of the Wiregrass region through bright color and a care for its people and places. The exhibition will focus on new works created through her residency as she has reflected on her own experiences along the way. Interested in telling the untold or overlooked stories across the South, these images offer a look at the complex realities of the region. 

“Support from the Wiregrass Museum of Art, the Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation, and the Alabama State Council on the Arts has advanced my artistic practice in various ways. I have grown as an artist mentally, and creatively. I have been able to slow down and be present in what I am allowing my mind to capture. It has also allowed me to discover realities and reflection about the South that I am looking forward to sharing soon. I hope that when viewers see this body of work it brings forth a slew of emotions that are familiar with joy, southern living, and motivates others to take care of their community and pour back into it,” said Sydney A. Foster.

Awarded grants have provided the artist with creative and financial support for equipment, travel and stipends, and will support the museum’s production and promotion of the exhibition, which will be on view from October 22, 2021 – March 26, 2022.

“We’re proud to champion Sydney A. Foster’s work in this residency and upcoming exhibition, and we’re grateful for the Foundation and Council’s generous support of an emerging artist. WMA looks forward to welcoming our residents and visitors to this exhibition, from area students on field trips to cultural tourists from across the U.S., knowing that they’ll have high quality and memorable experiences with art,” said Dana-Marie Lemmer, the museum’s executive director and curator. 

This exhibition will open during Art After Hours on Thursday, October 21st, from 5:30 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. Admission is free for members, and $5 for not-yet members.